Petitioning and
People Power in
Twentieth-Century Britain
Our research project, 2020-2023
Our three-year project brings together experts in the history of petitioning, in political studies of public engagement, and in twentieth-century British society to investigate petitioning as an activity and an institution.
This enables the team to analyse a core challenge of mass democracy: how should direct, participatory, and representative democracy mix in a larger, more diverse political community?
The project’s broad chronology and interdisciplinary team permit investigation of the shift from paper to e-petitioning, enabling the first historical account of what might be gained and lost in transitions from analogue to digital politics.
Twentieth-century Britons petitioned a lot
Petitioners ranged from children opposing caning in the classroom, residents resisting new supermarkets on their streets, or campaigners seeking to abolish nuclear weapons around the globe.
79% of British respondents had signed a petition – a higher rate than turned out to vote in the 1997 General Election.
1999 European Values Survey
The project unites an interdisciplinary team from three universities, funded by research grant AH/T003847/1
PPP 20 